Smurf fan spends thousands on personal collection

A woman has converted her spare room into an exhibition space to house her
collection of almost 5,000 Smurf figurines and memorabilia, said to be worth
£20,000.

Karen Bell with her Smurf collectionPhoto: Caters

By Rachael Stubbins

1:21PM GMT 18 Jan 2013

Karen Bell, a museum curator from Scotland, started collecting when she was six years old when she bought a figurine of a Grouchy Smurf holding an umbrella.

“I’m not sure why I started collecting them — I had lots of toys as a child but something about the Smurfs just kept me fascinated,” she said.

Her collection now includes 1,200 stickers and books, 1,370 figurines and 117 stationary products. Some of the items are replicas from different countries, bought because of their different colours and packaging.

Karen’s husband has agreed to let her use their spare room for her collection – but stopped short of allowing her to paint it blue.

“The room is so much better than having everything wrapped up and it means I can show other people all the things I have.”